North Carolina Basketball: 3 takeaways from upset loss at Georgia Tech
Despite leading for most of the game, North Carolina Tar Basketball collected its worst loss of the season on the road at Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.
Coming off an ACC-opening loss on the road to NC State, North Carolina Basketball desperately needed a rebound win over Georgia Tech – but failed, allowing a halftime lead to get away before eventually falling to the Yellow Jackets, 72-67.
To state the obvious, this loss is horrendous for a North Carolina squad that has struggled since the start of December. After picking up back-to-back convincing wins over Charleston and UNLV in November, the Tar Heels have gone 3-4 through the month of December – and that includes single-digit wins over Stanford and N.C. Central.
Their losses to Texas and Iowa are understandable, but for a team picked to finish fourth in the ACC – and was selected 14th in the preseason national poll – their loss to NC State was less than ideal. And now, UNC’s loss to Georgia Tech has presented a slew of greater issues for the Tar Heels – ones that harken back to last season’s historical struggles.
For Georgia Tech, obviously, this win is significant for a squad that opened the season with back-to-back losses to Georgia State and Mercer. They have gone 5-1 since those losses, and that streak includes wins over Kentucky, Nebraska, and now, North Carolina. The trio of Michael Devoe, Jose Alvarado, and Jordan Usher was deadly for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 20, 20, and 14, respectively, over the Tar Heels.
For North Carolina, there is more to this game than just the loss. Roy Williams implemented a completely new starting lineup, benching key players who have been starters since the beginning of the season – and have been significant players for years. This game was clearly meant to send a message to the UNC roster – and in some ways, it both succeeded and failed.
https://twitter.com/UNC_Basketball/status/1344444386587729921
Among those benched were Garrison Brooks – the Preseason ACC Player of the Year – and star freshman Caleb Love. This is obviously a North Carolina squad searching for a new identity – and those attempts tonight to discover that identity revealed some key positive and negative things about this team.